Riverstone Wellness
501c3 Board Members
Heather Berry
Founding Member
Heather Berry is a Licenced Clinical Social Worker, dedicated to partnering with individuals to achieve their goals of positive wellbeing and improved mental health. Heather has been a mental health provider for over 30 years and believes in the value of active and engaged commitment to self-improvement through education, movement, good nutrition, and social support. Heather has been offering her clients a confidential, safe and supportive private practice environment to be heard, and understood for over 20 years.
Heather has been a director of clinic based mental health services, a college professor, speaker, and outdoor educator. Heather is an active community volunteer and seeks education to continually bring relevant evidence based strategies into her practice.
She has been a strong contributor to the Kern River Valley community, as a leader in times of community crisis, as well as committed to developing community based resources, support groups, and professional liaisons. Heather directs and facilitates the Kern Valley Professional Mental Health Forum, creating a collaborative for local and county mental health leaders to work together, developing programs and resources.
Roberta Gordon
Board Chair
Roberta Piazza Gordon is a hospitality professional with a lifetime of experience. A Kernville native, Roberta owns and operates Piazza’s Pine Cone Inn (est. 1955), the oldest family owned business in Kernville.
Roberta spent a decade in the San Joaquin Valley as a television news reporter; she was the first female news anchor in Bakersfield. Her interests include photography, music, and wellness.
Lisa Smith Burgess
Secretary
Cindy has worked primarily in banking and finance since 1976. She retired in 2024 after a tenure of 15 years at Edward Jones Investments. Currently, I am a self employed private chef and occasionally do small catering events.y special interests are in continuous self improvement in wellness of body, mind and spirit and helping facilitate others in that arena. Through Riverstone, I learned that I love Watercolors and am happily immersed in that as a hobby. My core belief is service over self.
.png)
Vanessa Herrera
Treasurer
Vanessa Herrera is a community minded, nature loving, educator. Her career began in Outdoor/Experiential Education with Colorado Outward Bound where she used rafting and backpacking to teach leadership, grit and resilience. She watched students bloom on course in part because of the simplicity of the lifestyle and the daily connection to nature.
​
She went on to spend more than a decade as a classroom teacher. There she found that so many of her students were uncomfortable with quiet and had trouble focusing in class. In search of a way to help her students, she began exploring mindfulness and implemented this practice both personally and in her classroom.
For her maintaining wellness means yoga, meditation, spending time outdoors, and connecting daily with family and friends. Currently she works for the nonprofit Latino Outdoors where she helps Latino communities connect to the joy and healing found in the outdoors.
Ann Beman
Board Member
Ann Beman co-publishes Tahoma Literary Review, where she is nonfiction editor. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the short-lived but sweet Whidbey Writers Workshop and serves on the executive board of directors for Red Hen Press in Pasadena, CA. Beman also serves as reviews editor for the Museum of Americana online journal. She lives with two whatchamaterriers, a chihuahua, and her husband Marc, in Kernville.
Charles Lee
Board Member
I became involved with Heather Berry Counseling and then Riverstone Wellness after relocating to Kernville. Riverstone Wellness has been community outlet that has offered many classes and programs that have been a benefit for myself and many other members of our community. I have made friends with many of the community through Riverstone Wellness. It has been an honor to be member of the board of directors these past years and encourage the Kern River Valley community to take advantage of this wonderful local
resource.
​
I retired to the Kern River Valley in 2018 after living and working on the Monterey Peninsula and Maui, Hawaii. I enjoy living in Kernville with my little Persian cat, Maizee, and being close to my sister, brother and extended family in the area.
.jpeg)
Debbie Santiago
.png)
Board Member
Deb Santiago is a retired BLM Wildland Fire Battalion Chief for the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (1988-2011). She spent 23 years committed to public service experiencing many aspects of Wildland Fire Management and crisis community assistance.
She responded to a multitude of emergency incidents at the Local, State & National levels traveling to 28 different States during her federal fire service career.
​
She enjoys all of Mother Nature, water coloring & music. Deb practices mental health tackling PTSD through volunteer work and hobbies like fishing on the fly, yoga, Tai Chi & Pilates.